Workplace rules have changed – You need to take charge of your own career no matter where you work and no matter what your position

The rules for work have radically changed. The work world that existed when you started college, even if you graduated this spring, is gone.

If you are working, you need to take charge of your career and your reputation. This applies to brand new staff, experienced audit seniors, and especially partners.  People at every level of employment need to absorb that lesson.

Jenna Goudreau summarizes 14 Rules of the New Marketplace That Millennials Need to Master at Business Insider. My only disagreement with her is that these rules apply to everyone at every level, not just millennials.

She is drawing on Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success by Dan Schawbel.

You need to check out the full article or get the book. Here are a few highlights and my comments on them.

2. Your job is temporary. 

Your job, the client & your team, the entire department, or the full office in your city could go away Monday of next week.

There’s an old saying – keep your resume current. Now you need to keep your linked-in info current.

5. Your personal life is now public. 

Facebook is forever. So is that rant on some other social media site that you thought was anonymous.

Plan on everything you say or post online being public knowledge. Behave accordingly.

6. You need to build a positive presence in new media. 

Get started! Anywhere! Get something out there that shows you exist and have a clue.

You must figure out Twitter and Linked-in. Reserve your name, or a professional variation thereof, on every social media site. 

Get started blogging. Even if nobody ever reads your dozen posts.

There will be half a dozen brand new, red-hot, must-use social media tools in the next five years. Get a vague idea how each of them works.

12. Entrepreneurship is for everyone, not just business owners. 

Everyone needs to be thinking like an entrepreneur. Even if you are a new staffer.  Especially if you have some actual responsibility.

I’ve found that having ownership of my business has created astounding concentration on getting things done. Figure out some way to have that focus on your work.

14. Your career is in your hands, not your employer’s.  

Loyalty to your employer is critical. Simultaneously with remembering that, also realize the days of working hard for the company and trusting the company will take care of you are long gone.  It is very sad, but that social contract is null and void.

Check out the article for a great summary. If this is brand new info, you really oughta’ check out the book.

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